president's address. 23 



Minoan. It is only at a later stage that a more provincial offshoot 

 came into being to which the name Mycenaean can be properly applied. 

 But it is clear that some vanguard at least of the Aryan Greek immi- 

 grants came into contact with this high Minoan culture at a tim^e 

 when it was still in its most flourishing condition. The evidence of Homer 

 itself is conclusive. Arms and armour described in the poems are 

 those of the Minoan prime, the fabled shield of Achilles, like that of 

 Herakles described by Hesiod, with its elaborate scenes and variegated 

 metal- work, reflects the masterpieces of Minoan craftsmen in the full 

 vigour of their art ; the very episodes of epic combat receive their best 

 illustration on the signets of the great days of Mycenae. Even the 

 lyre to which the minstrel sang was a Minoan invention. Or, if we 

 turn to the side of religion, the Greek temple seems to have sprung 

 from a Minoan hall, its earliest pediment schemes are adaptations from 

 the Minoan tympanum— such as we see in the Lions' Gate — ^the most 

 archaic figures of the Hellenic Goddesses, like the Spartan Orthia, 

 have the attributes and" attendant animals of the great Minoan Mother. 



Some elements of the old culture were taken over on the soil of 

 Hellas. Others which had been crushed out in their old centres sur- 

 vived in the more Eastern shores and islands formerly dominated by 

 Minoan civilisation, and were carried back by Phoenician or Ionian 

 intermediaries to their old homes. In spite of the overthrow which 

 about the twelfth century before our era fell on the old Minoan 

 dominion and the onrush of the new conquerors from the North, much 

 of the old tradition still survived to form the base for the fabric of the 

 later civilisation of Greece. Once more, through the darkness, the 

 lighted torch was earned on, the first glimmering flame of which had 

 been painfully kindled by the old Cave dwellers in that earlier Palfeo- 

 lithic World. 



The Eoman Empire, which in turn appropriated the heritege that 

 Greece had received from Minoan Crete, placed civilisation on a broader 

 basis by welding together heterogeneous ingredients and promoting 

 a cosmopolitan ideal. If even the primeval culture of the Eeindeer Age 

 embraced more than one race and absorbed extraneous elements from 

 many sides, how much more is that the case with our own which grew 

 out of the Greco-Eoman ! Civilisation in its higher form to-day, though 

 highly complex, forms essentially a unitary mass. It has no longer 

 to be sought out in separate luminous centres, shining like planets 

 through the suiTOunding night. Still less is it the property of one 

 privileged country or people. Many as are the tongues of mortal men, 

 its votaries, like the Immortals, speak a single language. Throughout 

 the whole vast area illumined by its quickening rays, its workers 

 are interdependent, and pledged to a common cause. 



We, indeed, who are met here to-day to promote in a special way 



